All around us, people are celebrating Hanukkah, preparing for Christmas, or getting ready for Kwanzaa. Here is some prAACtical reading about AAC in the holiday season. Creating Language-rich Traditions 8 Ways to Have an AAC Holiday Season Holiday Shopping with a Purpose 10 Great Apps to Gift It’s PrAACtically Chanukkah
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: celebration, Chanukkah, Christmas, Hanukkah, kwanzaa
Today we’re pleased to share this video, a project of the North Carolina AT Program. Let’s peek in at Kayla, Logan, Bryan, and others share ways in which AT helps them live their best lives. Direct Link to Video: https://vimeo.com/110355711
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: access, accessibility, North Carolina AT Program
Looking to learn about a new AAC app? Take a look at these resources for AvaTalker AAC. Product Overview Support page Resources page Video tutorials
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AvaTalker, Teach Me Tuesday
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: advocacy, self-advocacy, self-determination
Sunday – Video of the Week: AAC & ASD with Dr. Joanne Cafiero Monday – “Speak To Me In My New Language” Tuesday – Research Tuesday: AAC & Challenging Behavior Wednesday – Communicating with CommuniKate Thursday – AACtual Therapy: Fun and Functional in the Kitchen Friday – PrAACtical Plans: Just for Today
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Feeling grateful during this holiday season? It’s hard not to get distracted with all the preparations and celebrations but our AAC mission is more important than ever. What prAACtical things are on your agenda? Here are some possibilities. Just for today… I will speak to an AAC learner using the language he/she is working hard to acquire. I will recognize someone for their efforts to support AAC use. I will read something challenging to see how I can apply it to my AAC work. I will mentally dissect my own therapy or teaching to see where I can improve. I will explore a new AAC-related resource. I will share something of value to the AAC community. I will finish ‘that project.’ I will reach out to a discouraged parent or service provider who is on an AAC journey. I will give feedback to an AAC app developer or SGD manufacturer... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Today we welcome back SLP Shareka Bentham to share her prAACtical adventures in the kitchen. You can see her previous posts here. For the past few months I have been having lots of fun using functional ways to teach my little ones vocabulary for items around the house. “Around the kitchen” is a favourite theme, since we always get to explore the kitchen, and make some yummy treats. I’ve found in my sessions that many children can recognize many of the items in the kitchen, and are aware of their function, but don’t actually know the names of these objects. It has been my goal then for children to be able to label at least 15 items within the kitchen. Vocab items range from the fridge, stove, blender, to food items, spoons, dish towel. Through these activities we have also highlighted the need to be able to talk about many... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: AACtual therapy, cooking, Shareka Bentham
We’ve talked a lot about innovative communication displays and today we’re going to highlight a recently released one. I was delighted to hear about CommuniKate from Dr. Joe Reddington, who blogs at joereddington.com. Joe is a principal of White Water Writers, a project that trains teachers and youth leaders to run inspiration literacy camps, and works toward a world where all children can hold books they have written. He researches ethical issues around power and control in the context of communication disability, and produces open datasets for AT provision, among other things. In this post, Joe introduces us to CommuniKate. CommuniKate 20 is a socially focused page set designed exclusively for people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). It was designed so that it could be easily used in conjunction with a low-tech communication book and as a progression from a book to a dynamic display device. It covers core vocabulary and... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: CommuniKate, free, Joe Reddington, open source
Research reviews are helpful tools for SLPs looking to implement evidence-based practices in their clinical work. In this month’s Research Tuesday post, we look at the work of Drs. Virginia Walker and Martha Snell, who conducted a meta-analysis to look at the relationship between challenging behaviors and AAC interventions. They looked at 54 different research studies with a total of 111 children and adults with AAC needs. They conducted both analytical and descriptive analyses. The research studies included participants at the emerging, prelinguistic, and multi-word levels of communication. Challenging behaviors were codes as distracting, disruptive, and/or destructive. Effect sizes were calculated using the Non-overlap of All Pairs method. Among their findings: AAC interventions reduce challenging behavior across a wide range of participants, including children and adults with a variety of developmental disabilities. AAC interventions were more effective with children (12 and under) than they were with adults (18 years and... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Challenging Behavior, FBA, FCT, Martha Snell, Research Tuesday, Virginia Walker
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: aided language input, model, speak AAC